Chinua Achebe 's Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe chose to write his novels in English to reveal a deep response of his people to colonisation and to make that response understood to people all over the world. Things Fall Apart was written in English to teach people worldwide of the struggles he faced and the people of Nigeria faced growing up. Many authors and critics have written about Achebe’s ‘Things fall apart’ adding their valued opinion on what he was trying to say and his decision to write in English. In the following essay I will be discussing why Achebe wrote the novel Things Fall apart in English and what messages he was trying to reveal, through the help of critics and secondary sources.

“What is the son but an extension of the father?”-- Frank Herbert, Dune. The relationship between father and son can be difficult and sometimes strained. One notable example of this is in the story Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Okonkwo struggles with accepting his father, Unoka’s, actions as noble or even tolerable. He grows up hating his father and consciously adopts different ideals.

In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo, the protagonist, experiences change from the cultural collision caused by the introduction of Western ideas into the Igbo culture. Okonkwo is the personification of the Igbo cultural values and morals, he is a true warrior, hard-working man that raises a surplus of staple foods, and a holder of many Igbo cultural titles showing proof of his dedication and work. Okonkwo is also one of the Egwugwu, an elder of the village that acts as a host for a god during the Igbo clan’s cultural and judicial meetings. However, no matter how great Okonkwo was, he fell victim to the changes of Western culture as it infiltrated and destroyed his people.

Have you ever wondered why African cultures don’t affiliate with other cultures? This is because they don’t handle new cultural customs in the best way possible. The mixture of different cultures colliding in Africa causes a bowl full of drama and problems that rise because of it. The way they simply react doesn’t help either them or the other culture. In the book Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is a masculine, abusive leader put down and went silent full of fear when missionaries of a different culture came, which tell us he was not able to adapt to the change in an efficient way.

Everyone on Earth is rooted in their culture. It shapes human being from the moment they are born to the moment they die. So, when a character leaves their culture things can start to go wrong, as perfectly portrayed in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. It shows a culture and family falling apart, because of several groups of converts and one convert: Nwoye. Family members betraying each other to find their own sense of identity can coincide with the downfall of society.

Have you even wondered what it was like in Africa after all of the slave trades, wars, and mass colonization were gone? Did Europe finally leave them alone or just dig themselves deeper into a hole? The novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is an emotional tale of a man named Okonkwo who lives in the Ibo village in Nigeria. Okonkwo is a very powerful man in his tribe, after working his way up from the nothing that his father was. He eventually gets ban from the village because of a mistake that he made and returns to white, European, Christians who have taken over in hopes of spreading Christianity. Consequently, all of the events that happen because of them, lead Okonkwo to hang himself. In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the white

Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, is a tale about Okonkwo, erstwhile respected warrior who is troubled by his father’s actions, which causes Okonkwo to make unscrupulous decisions with his life. The novel begins with Okonkwo, an extremely skilled wrestler that was recognized throughout the nine villages especially after he defeated Amalinze the Cat. Okonkwo was tall, massive, and had wide nose that gave him a very severe look. Okonkwo disgraced his father Unoka, because to the fact that he was particularly lazy and profligate person. Unoka was a failure in life for the reason that he was poor, he barely could feed his wife and children. Unoka could not receive help due to the fact that he was a debtor and refused to pay people back. Ogbuefi Ezeudu, a respected elder and powerful orator, announces “Those sons of wild animals have dared to murder a daughter of Umuofia.” Umuofia was feared by the other villages because of their skilled military. Okonkwo arrives at Mbaino, in a settlement Okonkwo is given a young virgin and a young boy named Ikemefuna because one of Mbaino murdered a girl from Umuofia. Okonkwo is chosen to represent the Umuofia because he’s a vicious warrior. Since Okonkwo fears failure and weakness for the reasons of his father Unoka, Okonkwo ruled his house with an iron fist. Okonkwo becomes a father figure to Ikemefuna who also builds a strong relationship with Okonkwo’s son Nwoye. Ikemefuna lives with Okonkwo and his family for three years until such

In the novel “Things Fall Apart”, Chinua Achebe teaches us that two cultures are unable to thrive together when they are forcing themselves onto the other through his use of the main protagonist, Okonkwo. This novel, “Things Fall Apart”, is about the African culture of the Ibo people being invaded by western influences in which Okonkwo is trapped within the feud. This book depicts differences between the two colliding cultures, Okonkwo’s culture, and his response to the newly changing environment to present Achebe’s theme.

“Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.” Okonkwo’s internal conflict was established early on in this famous novel. Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” is a novel illustrating the Ibo clan and its culture. This novel follows the protagonist, Okonkwo, through his plight involving British Colonialism and his internal conflict. Chinua Achebe’s character Unoka assisted with the portrayal of the Ibo clan and his son, Okonkwo’s character development through 3 literary devices: character development, plot, and setting.

Western views of African culture have often been those of disdain. Some books about Africa have set out to change the typical Western views of African culture, but others have upheld these negative views of African culture. Through each of their novels, Alan Paton, Chinua Achebe, and Joseph Conrad approach the topic of African culture and Western views on it differently.

In 1958, Chinua Achebe a famous Nigerian author publishes one of his most famous novels Things Fall Apart. The novel takes place in a Nigerian village called Umuofia. During the time that this novel is published Nigeria is being criticized by the Europeans for being uncivilized. In response, Achebe uses his brilliance in this novel to express the valued history of his people to his audience. His focus in the novel is on the pre-colonized people of the Igbo tribe and their tribal leader Okonkwo. Achebe discuses early in the novel that the tribe is outlined by many rituals and values that they follow religiously. However, when the well-respected leader Okonkwo mistakenly

In the novel Things Fall Apart, written by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, we are taken on a literary life expedition of a man, named Okonkwo who is a respected warrior in his tribe of Umuofia –a Igbo (formerly known as Ibo not Igbo) tribe of Nigeria-- a hard worker on his farm and any work to be done in general, a husband of three wives and father to many children. Being the son of a man who died, depicted as inwardly womanly, cowardly (fearing blood and fighting) known for loving music and idle talk, also widely in-debt to many, many people, as well as dying as an wretch from a sickness in the "evil forest" out casted with his musical instrument and disease. Okonkwo purposefully takes on opposite characteristics. We see that his mother died when he was very, very young, dying in her own homeland, not in Umuofia.

The main objective of Chinua Achebe in his book Things fall apart (1958) is to depict openly and clearly the culture of the Ibo people of the West Africa (Bloom 49). Contrasting the European views of the Africans such as Conrad 's book titled Heart of Darkness; Achebe depiction narrates involved rituals, customs, and laws and comes up with personal attributes. Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart shows the aspects of full functionality and life. Nevertheless, Achebe still upholds his aim and eludes giving the Ibo any unjustified sympathy, selecting some their customs, for example, the compulsory neglecting of infant twin in doubtful circumstance (Bloom 49)

In order to be capable of understanding a novel from another country, it is imperative for one to understand the culture of this other world. The culture of Nigeria is vastly different from the Western society in which we live in. In Chinua Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, culture is immediately introduced in the most fundamental of manners. While the English reader explores the culture of Nigeria in the first several chapters it is evident that their culture is a major literary element for developing the characters and settings of the novel. Achebe uses the element of culture in order to explain his culture foremost and then that the Nigerians are maybe not so different from the Western World after all. Achebe writes to display that the

Chinua Achebe is a famous Nigerian novelist in worldwide. Things fall apart is Chinua Achebe’s first novel published in 1958, the year after Ghana became the first African nation to gain independence. And this novel is one of the first African novels to gain worldwide recognition. (Phil Mongredien, 2010) This novel presents people a story of an African Igbo tribal hero, Okonkwo, from his growth to death. The fate of Okonkwo also indicates the fate of Africa caused by the colonization from Europe. Chinua Achebe devoted a large segment of this novel to describe Igbo’s traditions, and because he grew up in a missionary teachers’ family, this novel focuses on the conflicts between Igbo’s traditional customs and Christianity instead of weapons and wars, and show how religion separate and destroy the clan. After reading this novel, the most impressive thing I would like to talk about is the reasons of why the tribe had fallen apart.